End of Life doula training to be offered in Flat Rock

By Beth De Bona Times-News Correspondent

Sunday

Feb 11, 2018 at 6:15 AMFeb 12, 2018 at 2:57 PM

The call to guide those at the end of life may be an unusual one, but it’s a call that is nonetheless growing. A training in end of life care that is open to healthcare professionals and anyone interested will take place starting Feb. 23 at the Sanctuary of the Pines in Flat Rock.

“The call to help people who are dying is pretty unique,” said Tarron Estes, founder of the Conscious Dying Institute, based in Boulder, Colo. “Some may say ‘it’s so hard’ or ‘that’s strange,’ but when you’re inside the work and you see what’s inside the training it’s very bright and satisfying, even in the grief.”

The two-part a Sacred Passage program, led by Estes and Registered Nurse Gregory Lathrop, offers participants completing the training an End of Life Doula Certificate.

End of Life doulas are “frontline caregivers who offer healing vs. curative care to families and patients during critical illness and the dying process.”

Estes noted that End of Life care is one of the fastest growing “unusual” professions in the country, with the numbers of people becoming interested “precisely” matching the current need.

Caregivers with the End of Life doula certificate can work with the care receiver and family to provide emotional and spiritual support, demystify the stages of the dying process, attend at bedside “so that no one dies alone” and be a “steward of a conscious death,” to cite a few examples from CDI’s description of the program.

This is the first time the training has been offered in Flat Rock; a training was offered in Black Mountain in 2017. CDI presents Sacred Passage trainings across the United States as well as in Canada. The first phase of the training at the Sanctuary in the Pines is scheduled for Feb. 23-25 and the second phase from May 25-29.

Materials describing the program state its purpose as restoring death “to its sacred place in the beauty, mystery and celebration of life and create a new wisdom-based culture of care and healing.”

Also, the program “cultivates an authentic caring healing presence in caregivers, restoring emotional integrity and spiritual sanctity to relationships and increasing life satisfaction for all involved.”

Lathrop, a CDI faculty member who has worked 40 years in the healthcare industry, most of that time has been as a registered nurse working in a variety of settings with people in the final phase of life, he said.

Early in his nursing career, when Lathrop was working with the dying in Critical Care he noticed he was having “an existential crisis within myself” and asked himself, “what are my values, what are we doing here?”

Lathrop recalls a patient writing on a tablet: “Let me die.”

“In our healthcare, and rightfully so, much of our attempts is to stop this thing — and that has an important place but in our efforts to stop it we may start wrapping ourselves up in thinking that death is wrong,” he said.

Lathrop found that looking at end of life from a different perspective is a change in the focus of the caregiver. He asked himself what he could bring “as a faithful witness to enter into this space with them and their family.”

Lathrop also discovered that a “tremendous amount” could be offered to assist healthcare professionals in this practice.

“In my experience … it becomes a life practice where death is the teacher,” he said. “Being a nurse, a social worker or a physician does not in any way guarantee the practitioners are comfortable with this phase of life.”

Lathrop believes the Sacred Passage program can become a foundational piece for the practice of end of life caregiving whether it’s in a hospital or a home setting.

“It gives me something to share that’s natural,” he said. Acting as a "Faithful Witness," the end of life doula “goes with” the dying person, without fear.

“To enter into this realm with peace and loving understanding, that shows itself in my practice to leave any fear at the door,” he added.

Like Lathrop, Estes has a background in healthcare, though not on the medical side, she said.

When Estes founded CDI four years ago, she said they began to notice people of all backgrounds showing up—from physicians and registered nurses to caregivers, chaplains and social workers — even massage therapists and yoga instructors.

“The program really attracts those who have been called to the work,” said Estes. “That calling is so simple … and it comes from the essence of a person’s heart and soul.”

Estes describes the two-part training as a non-prescriptive course; she said there is a “very deep level of reflective hands-on experiential practice that is beyond anything you’d get at a university or online course.”

Essentially, Estes sees end of life caregiving as a spiritual practice. She compares the movement to the birth doula movement and the growth of midwife care in past decades.

Contact CDI for information about registering and program fees. Scholarship and work opportunities are offered, but are limited. To learn more, call 303-440-8108 or visit consciousdyinginstitute.com.

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